A "dialing plan" provides a description of the dialing arrangements that a customer must use on the telephone network. For customers in the United States, the dialing plan dictates that a caller dials a seven digit phone number to place local calls. To place long distance domestic calls, a caller dials a "1" followed by an area code, which, in turn, is followed by a seven digit phone number. To place international calls, a caller must dial "011" followed by a country code and a remaining portion of the phone number that is particular to the country being called.
Dialing plans are typically associated with given countries or geographic regions. For example, one dialing plan may be associated with the United States and another may be associated with France. The use of multiple dialing plans in different portions of the world poses a problem when a caller travels outside of the home country of the caller. In such an instance, the caller may not know how to properly place a call in the foreign country because the caller is not familiar with the dialing plan provided for the foreign country. The caller has no choice of which dialing plan to employ. The caller must use the dialing plan of the locale from which the call originates.
Hence, there is a need to provide an approach to placing calls so that it is easier for a caller to place a call originating from a location outside of the native country of the caller.